The present invention relates to a centrifugal separator for centrifugally separating a sample at inside of a rotor rotated at high speed in a rotor chamber.
FIG. 14 and FIG. 15 show a background art of a centrifugal separator of this kind.
That is, FIG. 14 is a front view of a centrifugal separator of a background art, FIG. 15 is a side view showing operation of attaching and detaching a rotor in the centrifugal separator, and a centrifugal separator 1′ of the illustrated example is constituted by a rotating apparatus portion 10, a sample injecting apparatus 100′ and a control apparatus portion 200 arranged on both sides thereof as shown by FIG. 14.
The rotating apparatus portion 10 is provided with a chamber 12 in a cylindrical shape on a base 11 fixed onto a floor face 2 by a plurality of pieces of bolts 3, and a rotor 13 in a cylindrical shape shown in FIG. 15 is rotatably set to be inserted into the chamber 12. Further, an upper rotating shaft 14 and a lower rotating shaft 15 are respectively extended vertically upward and downward from the rotor 13, and the upper rotating shaft 14 is connected to a drive portion 30 installed on an upper plate 16 in a shape of a circular plate. Further, the lower rotating shaft 15 is rotatably supported by a lower bearing portion 50 fixedly provided to the base 11. Further, the drive portion 30 is provided with an electric motor, not illustrated, as a drive source, the upper rotating shaft 14 is inserted to be fixedly attached to an output shaft (motor shaft) of the electric motor, and a path (not illustrated) in a shape of a circular hole is penetrated through the upper rotating shaft 14 and the lower rotating shaft 15 for passing a sample.
Further, the rotating apparatus portion 10 is erected with a pair of left and right vertical lifts 70 which are hydraulically moved up and down on a back side (left side of FIG. 15) of the chamber 12, and a pair of left and right horizontal lifts 80 are horizontally attached between the vertical lifts 70. Here, each of the horizontal lifts 80 is hydraulically moved forward and rearward in the horizontal direction, and a front end portion thereof is connected to the upper plate 16.
Further, the sample injecting apparatus 100′ is provided with a frame member 101 movable on the floor face 2, and the frame member 101 is installed with a sample tank 102 containing the sample, arranged with a liquid feeding pump 103 thereabove, and installed with a switch valve 104 and a flow meter 105 further thereabove. Further, a pipe 106 extended upward from the sample tank 102 is connected to a suction side of the liquid feeding pump 103, and a pipe 107 extended from a delivery side of the liquid feeding pump 103 is connected to a sample injecting connector 17 connected to the lower bearing portion 50 of the rotating apparatus portion 10. Further, a pipe 108 is extended to direct to the sample injecting apparatus 100′ from a sample discharging connector 18 connected to an upper end of the drive portion 30, and an end portion thereof is inserted into the sample discharging tank, not illustrated.
Further, the control apparatus portion 200 is constituted by installing a control panel 202 at an upper portion of a case 201 in a shape of a rectangular box, and although not illustrated, inside of the case 201 is integrated with a drive portion power source, a refrigerator for cooling water and the rotor 13, a vacuum pump for vacuuming a rotor chamber, not illustrated, at inside of the chamber 12, an oil pump for supplying oil to respective portions of the rotating apparatus portion 10, a hydraulic unit for driving the vertical lifts 70 and the horizontal lifts 80 and the like. Further, at the control panel 202, rotational number, operating time, temperature and the like of the rotor 13 can be set and displayed, and a switch for starting and stopping the apparatus is provided thereto.
Further, according to the centrifugal separator 1′ having the above-described constitution, the sample in the sample tank 102 is injected into the rotor 13 from the sample injecting connector 17 of the rotating apparatus portion 10 by way of the pipes 106, 107 by the liquid feeding pump 103 of the sample injecting apparatus 100′. Further, the sample injected into the rotor 13 is centrifugally separated by rotating the rotor 13 at high speed, and the centrifugally separated sample (supernatant liquid or the like) is discharged from the sample discharging connector 18 to the sample discharging tank, not illustrated, by way of the pipe 108 as a discharge liquid, and the sample (separated sample) including particles sedimented in the rotor 13 is recovered by being discharged to a sample recovery tank, not illustrated, from a side of a lower portion of the rotor 13 by opening inside of the rotor 13 to the atmosphere after stopping to rotate the rotor 13.
Meanwhile, after centrifugally separating the sample as described above, the rotor 13 is taken out from the chamber 12 and is cleaned, or sterilized as necessary and thereafter, the rotor 13 is integrated into the chamber 12, since the rotor 13 is provided with a large weight, the rotor 13 is attached and detached by the vertical lift 70 and the horizontal lift 80 which are hydraulically operated as follows.
That is, when the vertical lift 70 is driven by hydraulic pressure supplied from the hydraulic unit, not illustrated, of the control apparatus portion 200, the horizontal lift 80 and the upper plate 16 attached at a front end portion thereof are moved upward along with the drive portion 30 and the rotor 13 to be lifted to a position indicated by a chain line in FIG. 15. Further, when the horizontal lift 80 is driven hydraulically to move forward from the position, the upper plate 16 supported by the front end portion is moved forward to an escaping position indicated by a chain line in FIG. 15 along with the drive portion 30 and the rotor 13 and therefore, the rotor 13 is taken out from the chamber 12 thereby. Further, the rotor 13 taken out from the chamber 12 is cleaned or further sterilized and thereafter, integrated into the chamber 12 by a procedure inverse to the above-described to be subjected to centrifugal separation again. Further, attachment and detachment of the rotor 13 by the hydraulic unit is described in Patent Reference 1, and a sterilizing processing by vapor is described in Patent Reference 2.
[Patent Reference 1] JP-A-2000-024551
[Patent Reference 2] JP-A-2000-042449